"TNT" Keny G(previously the promoter of High Voltage Wrestling) suffered a stroke not too long ago and wanted to put on a benefit show to raise stroke awareness. Several local media outlets did interviews with Dynamo representatives to promote the event. As a result, attendance was definitely better than your average Glen Carbon show.
Not much was announced ahead of time other than Santana "Brittany" Garrett vs. Jordynne Grace and Ricky Cruz vs. Pablo Marquez(one of his old trainers). As it turned out, Marquez had to cancel due to a family emergency so the match was changed to a Cruz-Jake Dirden rematch.
Your ring announcers were Luke Roberts & Chris Roedel, your referees were Patrick Hook, Keith Smith Jr., and Michael Crase.
Executive Director Mark Bland introduced the show and brought out Keny G to speak on his recent experiences...I've seen several friends and relatives go through health issues in recent times so I know how important it is to be aware of these things.
Rocket Mapache vs. Danny Adams vs. "Elegant Assassin" Pierre Abernathy vs. Paco Gonzalez vs. Ballistic Brent Myers vs. Jackal: Adams and Gonzalez are trainees of new Ring Of Honor Heavyweight Champion Michael Elgin; they made their debuts in the preshow match at the recent ROH show in Collinsville. Myers has appeared a few times for SICW and this was his Dynamo debut. Pierre was one of a few representatives from St. Louis Anarchy on the show; he prefers to handle behind-the-scenes matters at SLA but occasionally wrestles for other groups. There were a few style clashes in this one to say the least, it had its fun moments(including some early comedy between Mapache and Pierre). Jackal pinned Myers after the Killswitch #2 in 7:00; Myers was up a bit quickly after the finisher, thinking that he'd won...no dice.
The Bumrush Brothers("The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs & Outtkast) vs. The Viking War Party("The American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell): This was a face/face bout, presumably to establish the next challengers for The Black Hand Warriors' Tag Team Titles. That would be pending another appearance by our esteemed champions...Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean have been tough to flag down for title defenses since WLW(where they ALSO hold tag team gold) has been a lot busier as of late. Oddly, I haven't seen Rudolph and Parnell team up THAT often in this area(though they've held tag team gold in other Illinois promotions)...Parnell's "Littlest Viking" character seems to fit better when he's hanging out with Rudolph. The BRBs were crowd favorites which made the Vikings the heels by default, I suppose. Parnell got the pin on Outtkast in 12:00 after a combo move where Rudolph did a powerbomb as Parnell jumped off the top rope with a flying backcracker...ouchie.
"Showtime" Bradley Charles vs. "The Alternative" Brandon Gallagher: From face/face to heel/heel...Gallagher's a more established heel in Dynamo so SBC was the crowd favorite by process of elimination. Solid matchup, but there's something to be said for picking a face/heel alignment and sticking with it. SBC won with a TKO in 7:10.
Santana "Brittany" Garrett vs. Jordynne Grace: Karl Lauer from the Cauliflower Alley Club introduced Brittany, who recently received the "Future Legend" award from the CAC. Previous recipients of that award include: Trevor Murdoch, Takeshi Morishima, Frankie Kazarian, Cheerleader Melissa, "Superstar" Steve Fender, Chris Benoit, and Kurt Angle. Grace has been making a name for herself in IWA Mid-South in recent months, including a bout with LuFisto at their Queen Of The Deathmatches show. Santana/Brittany had her first few matches in the St. Louis area with her father Keny's High Voltage Wrestling...she eventually moved to Florida and has been competing in that area. Her resume includes appearances for the SHIMMER and SHINE promotions; she made a handful of appearances with TNA a few years ago alongside Orlando Jordan, then wrestled on last year's Knockouts Knockdown PPV. Of course, she has become a regular member of the TNA roster under the name "Brittany" and is currently feuding with Madison Rayne. Despite her heel turn on Impact, she was the fan favorite in this match against Jordynne. I thought they worked pretty well together, considering they hadn't faced each other before; Santana/Brittany won with the Shining Star Press in 6:42.
After intermission, Mark Bland announced Pablo Marquez's absence and said he was looking for someone to "deal with" Ricky Cruz. That brought out manager Travis Cook for his only appearance of the night(none of his regular proteges were in the house)...Cook said that he had taken up a collection with his compatriots to pay the fine for Ricky's actions at the last Stratford Inn show. Their line of thinking: It was a no-DQ match, so how can you punish someone for "breaking rules" in a match with no rules? However, the conversation gave Bland the idea to book a rematch between Cruz and Dirden for the main event...that'll do.
"Walking Reality" Dan Walsh vs. Davey Vega vs. Steven Kennedy vs. Mike Outlaw for the HVW Livewire Title: For reference: Walsh won the belt in question at a Dynamo show on October 16, 2010. HVW's last show was on April 30, 2011 and Walsh didn't defend the title(he was in a battle royal)...so this was technically his first title defense! I had been thinking that Dynamo has enough people on the roster for a secondary singles title, whether it be a Light Heavyweight Title or something else...I imagine the Livewire Title was brought out of the mothballs just for this event since it was Keny G's event. Thankfully the title is under the 1,370-day rule so he just barely avoided being stripped of the championship. Outlaw accounted himself well with three more experienced competitors...he's done well in his first few outings. Vega hadn't competed for Dynamo since holding the NWA Missouri Title. This was an all-face bout, as far as I could tell...Walsh won with a new finisher(some kind of shoulderbreaker) in 8:16, continuing his near-five-year reign as HVW Livewire Champion(bwahahaha).
The Kansas City Killers("The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt & "The Fittest Wrestler On Earth" Mark Sterling) vs. "The Yoga Monster" Mike Sydal & Brandon Aarons for the Pro Wrestling Phoenix Tag Team Titles: PWP is an Iowa promotion; the KC crew regularly travels to Iowa to compete for 3XW and other groups. Sydal & Aarons are no strangers to each other...in fact, they held the LWA Tag Team Titles in 2010 after upsetting The Hooligans. The crowd seemed a bit down for this one...I keep trying to figure out the crowd energy at the Glen Carbon shows and have yet to come up with a good explanation. Lack of crowd work? More open space in the venue than usual? I'm sure individual onlookers have their own opinions...as always, I allow anonymous comments on the whiny blog. Fine matchup, at any rate; Sterling speared Sydal, Wyatt dropped an elbow from the top rope, and Sterling got the pin in 10:55.
Billy McNeil vs. Gary Jay: Gary wore his "Gerald James" ring attire despite going by his regular ring name here. While these two have competed for the same promotions in the past, I honestly don't think they'd ever faced each other one-on-one since both were usually faces. This match dragged the fans kicking and screaming back into the show, so good for them. McNeil's Spiral Tap variant hit raised knees and Gary finished with the Michinoku Driver in 13:18.
Battle Royal: You can go back to the quick-and-dirty rundown for the full list of battle royal participants. Several people had double duty with a few extra names, including new Dynamo trainee Sir Isaac. I didn't know anything about the larger gentleman named Jonah Turk...from what I gather, he's from Springfield, Missouri. The battle royal also featured a rare appearance by the elusive Armchair Luchador(last seen by yours truly at a Rampage Championship Wrestling show in May of 2009). For some reason, referee Patrick Hook entered the battle royal...and for some OTHER reason, he was thrown out of the ring by fellow official Keith Smith Jr.! I didn't take down the exact order of eliminations...Turk was out first, but battle royals are tough to follow in general. It came down to a confrontation between recent rivals Walsh and Gallagher...Gallagher managed to eliminate Walsh, but he forgot about Steven Kennedy who dropkicked him out of the ring from behind to get the victory (no time announced).
"Dirdey" Jake Dirden & The Bumrush Brothers vs. Heavyweight Champion "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz & The Kansas City Killers: The scheduled Cruz-Dirden match never even got started as the two brawled around the ringside area for several minutes...then when they nearly made it into the ring, Wyatt & Sterling attacked Dirden to create a three-on-one situation. Shorty & Outtkast ran out to help and Mark Bland ordered a six-man tag match...okay then. Things remained unsettled between Cruz and Dirden...we already had a no-DQ match between them and that wasn't enough to resolve the feud, so what's next? At any rate, an Outtkast Samoan Drop/Shorty flying boot combo led to Shorty pinning Sterling for the win in 13:33. Good guys win to end the show, so there you have it.
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It was a busy Saturday night as MMWA had a big show at South Broadway. Thanks to Timmy Miller's YouTube channel, I've been able to keep up with their last several shows that I've been unable to attend. They're still drawing very well and the in-ring action has been very good, so kudos to them for that.
The opener saw a random appearance by Tony Kozina as he teamed with a big guy named Kevin Lee Davidson(presumably a trainee of his) against Laurence Johnson & Draco Verdadaro. Kozina hit some nice moves, then Davidson quickly overpowered Johnson and won with a spinebuster...okay, I guess they were on the Elitism side as they had the score as 1-0 Elitism. (EDIT: Davidson is a Broadway trainee.)
With three mystery slots on the announced lineup, you had to wonder if any past MMWA competitors would be showing up. Some were there(including Jerome Cody and William Gaylord) but didn't wrestle. Gary Jackson teamed with upstart Johnathon Zulu against former Tag Champs LaMarcus Clinton & Chase King. LMC & Chase looked good as a team and they may be pushing them toward a rematch for the belts they never lost in the ring...cool by me. This match did feature another recent pet peeve(along with people getting up too quickly after high-impact match-ending finishers): A face takes a beating in a tag match, makes the hot tag, the partner cleans house...and then tags the worn-down guy back into the match for the finish. Sometimes that team DOES go on to win, but most of the time that guy just gets victimized all over again and beaten. It did take a low blow to set up the finish, at any rate: A Protobomb by King and a big elbowdrop off the top by LMC allowed King to pin Zulu for the win, putting the Elitism up 2-0.
Ace Hawkins defended his Jr. Heavyweight Title against Andrew Wilder in a first-ever-at-South-Broadway ladder match. They had some innovative spots in this one...it looks like the long-term feud is blown off as Hawkins won. Ace did need a low blow to get the opening to retrieve the belt...yes, second low blow finish in as many matches. Brandon Espinosa crowed over the fact that his side was up 3-0...which sorta killed the suspense for the three matches that followed, when you think about it. It was EXTREMELY unlikely that the series would be decided before the final gauntlet match, so the good guys had to make a comeback.
Thankfully, the outcome of the Tag Title match wasn't in too much doubt. Sean Orleans is adjusting to his heel manager's role fairly well as he let Jackson Whitechapel do the heavy lifting and even left his corner near the end of the match. To be fair, a loss in THAT situation didn't hurt the big picture TOO badly as they were only down 3-1 as a result. Whitechapel took a Paydirt from Da'Marius Jones followed by a 450 Splash from A.J. Williams for the finish.
The dog collar match between T.V. Champion Lynn Mephisto and Moondog Rover had the pin-or-submission stipulation instead of the touch-four-corners rule...which was okay by me. It was more serious than your average Moondog match...and in that respect, it was relatively short and got the point across. Moondog won with a front powerslam for his first championship in quite a while(he was Battle Royal Champion several years ago).
With the gap closing between the two sides, Dave Osborne challenge the undefeated-in-MMWA Barackus in a best-of-three-falls match for the Survivor Title. Barackus got disqualified in the first fall for choking Osborne and then shoving the ref, then got an easy second fall right after that with a big splash. Barackus couldn't keep Osborne down and removed a turnbuckle pad, but it backfired as a blind charge by the big man hit the exposed buckle. Osborne couldn't hit his swinging uranagi move as cleanly as he normally does...understandable, given the sheer size of the opposition. Osborne finished with a running senton to finally put a blemish on Barackus' record, capturing the Survivor Title and evening the series at three wins apiece.
Everett Connors is getting the underdog push nowadays...he was a punching bag for a while, but he's upset Espinosa a few times in non-title situations. The gauntlet started with Connors defeating J-Mal Swagg with a guillotine legdrop. With Evan Gelistico MIA, a banged-up Ace Hawkins did double duty...and Connors got a clean win over the Jr. Heavyweight Champion, so that'll probably start a new feud. On top of that, Sean Orleans took his sweet time getting in the ring, allowing Ace to BELT Connors from behind during the rest period...that led to Orleans getting an easy pin. Fine heel work from those guys. Next out was Webmaster Stevie K who dominated Orleans for the most part...nice fluke-ish ending as Stevie K accidentally high-kneed the ringpost and Orleans beat the ten-count. The surprise guy on the face side was Shaft...Orleans got some offense but Shaft got him in the anklelock for the tapout.
Just as the feel-good moment was setting in, Espinosa hit the ring to nail Shaft from behind...one brainbuster later, it was down to the Heavyweight Champion and the former titleholder Brian James. The Elitism sympathizers came out to ringside, so the face locker room entered as well and that led to a huge brawl. Commissioner Jim Harris had warned Espinosa against any interference...but there was enough chaos to occupy the refs long enough for Orleans to sneak in a low blow on James. (Third low blow-oriented finish of the night.) A Greco-Roman chair to the head ended it for Espinosa...putting the heels in control of the company. Capping off the night, Tim Miller revealed his allegiance to the Elitism...he had been Commissioner but was removed from that spot in favor of Jim Harris. It's easy to see how he'd resent being removed from his spot(for no concrete reason that I can recall), so there you go.
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So yeah, busy weekend. Whew.
Dynamo will be busy in the upcoming weeks...an Off Broadway show was announced for Tuesday 7/29, plus they're back at the Stratford Inn in Fenton on Saturday 8/2. There are no area shows next weekend as far as I know, then SICW is back in East Carondelet on Saturday 7/26 with Ox Baker appearing. A new group called High Risk Wrestling debuts at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville on Sunday 8/3(afternoon show).
As previously noted, WLW has been a lot busier lately...I had thought about attending their show at the Troy MO Fairgrounds on Thursday, but I had a comedy show that night. It's turned into an ongoing thing that there will ALWAYS be some sort of schedule conflict that keeps me from attending a WLW show in the immediate area...but I'll get to one of their shows eventually.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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